Ideas

When I started looking for final project ideas, I knew I wanted to utilize capacitive touch to prepare for my final FabAcademy project. My first idea was a capacitive touch and conductive fabric plush game controller, but I knew that I wasn't fully interested in the project. I also worried that using conductive fabric would not teach me as much about capacitive touch as other projects could. I was excited by the project in that it would let me make a game controller to play the games that I love in a new and different way. My second idea was a capacitive touch Arduino piano keyboard. My worries with this project was that it was too simple, and that it would not be challenging enough for me. However, I was excited that making the project would allow me to make a version of an instrument that was so special to me. My third idea was an capacitive touch LED and MIDI circular-piano project, named Eclipse. My worries with this project was that it would take too long for me to make, and that I would not be able to code the LED string lights and the MIDI, but I wanted to take up on the challenge. I was most excited to make this project because it would give me an opportunity to take on a new challenge of making a relatively complex project that I had never experienced before. I expected that the most challenging part of the project would be implementing the capacitive sensors.

I chose my third idea, the Eclipse project, because it seemed like a really interesting project with the sleekest design out of the three projects. I also thought that the project would teach me a lot about capacitive sensors and how to use them. For me, a successful project would uniquely light up depending on which capacitive sensor was pressed. I used the Instructables project version, made by user jbumstead (which can be found at https://www.instructables.com/id/LED-Eclipse-With-Touch-Sensors-and-MIDI/), as inspiration and reference. (My project is on the left, the original is on the right.)

At the very end, my version of the project is different from the source inspiration because I decided to leave out any MIDI aspects and I changed the coding as well. I also decided to only use the LED string lights and I changed the wiring of the project too.